The League of Hackers

A friend once described to me this phenomenon:

In biology, we are taught that the human race is likely to be beaten by bacteria. In history, we are taught that humans will continue to wage war on their neighbors, and in philosophy, we are asked to question the very purpose of existence. Then, in computer science, we are tasked with solving problems not just with any solution, but with the most efficient solution. In open source, the problems we solve for ourselves, we solve for the rest of the developer community. Hackers are superheroes to one another.

This is so empowering, even outside the scope of tech. What could I do to give this optimism to others, to get people hacking?

I taught an introductory coding class at school, but that wasn’t really the solution I was looking for. I wanted a way to celebrate hackers. When code is pushed, it ships without a face. If I wanted to get people excited about hacking, I had to bring back those faces.

Hackers of NY

Hackers of NY was launched in Feb 2014. Today, it has spread all over the world, to Silicon Valley, London, Los Angeles and Chicago, sprouted by hackers that wanted to celebrate the innovators in their own communities. I couldn’t be more excited about the growth of the League of Hackers.